The Russians went after the forward scout at first and the Germans answered with an airstrike on the Russian left flank armour that did minimal damage. The unscathed tanks then pushed up against the scout, allowing the German scout on the axis left to run away. The Russians then pushed onto the scouting hill and then called in an air strike on the axis left gun, but missed. During this time, the Germans had been massing on the right and then launched operation "Blaster" with an assault followed by a firefight that left the Russian left in disarray. The Russians countered the assault but only reduced one unit to 25% strength who then melted into the back with during a counter attack. This left the Germans in control of their right. The Russians assaulted the centre doing some damage but this was countered by a German TFH, which pushed the Russians back. Slowly the Germans wheeled around the Russian right to flank them. A smart commando raid took out an axis armour unit and got the Russians very close to escaping but the Commissar left the commandos with no further orders and they got wiped out. A few more skirmishes with a number of misses from the Russians and the Germans mopped up the rest. In all, the Russians just didn't have the same firepower as the Germans and that kept them from going on the offensive.

Excellent victory by Boyd, after the 1st few opening "feeling out" turns.. he turned up the heat on his RIGHT flank..."Operation Blaster" for him became "Operation Disaster" for me!!

Did a good job of moving to his RIGHT, an ALL, followed by FIREFIGHT, a COUNTER of my ALL...and TFH in the CENTER and then back to my RIGHT with a DFHQ, wiped out my RIGHT and he was off to a 6-2 lead and he brought it home from there...join my brothers in defeat and hope the rest bring a few victories home to keep us in the fight or it it will be a slow crawl back into the fight.

Had cards on my LEFT for his RIGHT ASSAULT...he just had the better cards and ended up with a 76-47 dice advantage...difficult to beat that thought %'s weren't to far apart overall...was just 2 steps ahead of me the whole game.

Sorry guys, this scenario has turned into a complete disaster. It looks like there is no chance for the Allies to win. So, what I'm going to do, as Sam suggested, is start over.

I have posted 2 scenarios on the SFTF page for Geoff to choose, 'Ambush at Gemas' and 'Impregnable Fortress, Battle of Singapore'. In the interests of keeping the tournament going, once Geoff makes his decision, the 1st round will commence with the same opponents and no reserve units placed.

Again, I want to apologize for such an unbalanced scenario.

I know some of you may be upset but since we are playing only one side, I want to have these scenarios as balanced as possible. They won't be 5-5 in games every round but this one is a stinker. Let the games begin(again)!

Hmmm, here I thought Sam was talking about a concession, you know, where we good get food and drink and enjoy the company of our brothers and take a break from the fighting!

Eric,

So, 0-7, not much different from where we stand on BERLIN, 1-6 with a chance of 1-8....of course that is bringing that one to a close...but, will take my marching orders and fight on! As my fellows across both ponds say, will be on holiday 12-19 June, so won't be able to join the right right away, but, like Clorofila said, just want to play, getting beat is but one option I have when I do play!

Before we start, it was pointed out that all but one of the Western Hemisphere players are on the same side. In order to make the tournament go a little faster it would probably be a good idea to rebalance the teams so there won't be as much of a delay in organizing as many games with 5 or 6 hours difference.

So, I am asking Gheintze and vanVoort to tweak the rosters before we begin. They can get help from some of the other guys if they want. Once the sides are settled we will begin.

By the way Ambush at Gemas will be our first battle. Buidheo and I played it recently and it went down to 1 figure for victory.

Before we start, it was pointed out that all but one of the Western Hemisphere players are on the same side. In order to make the tournament go a little faster it would probably be a good idea to rebalance the teams so there won't be as much of a delay in organizing as many games with 5 or 6 hours difference.

So, I am asking Gheintze and vanVoort to tweak the rosters before we begin. They can get help from some of the other guys if they want. Once the sides are settled we will begin.

Eric

Is this really necessary? Sure, it may take a little longer to schedule all of the battles in a round, but what is the rush? For my part, I was looking forward to playing against worthy opponents that I rarely see online (precisely because of the time difference).

That said, I will of course abide by whatever decision Eric and the commanders make in this regard.

Is this really necessary? Sure, it may take a little longer to schedule all of the battles in a round, but what is the rush? For my part, I was looking forward to playing against worthy opponents that I rarely see online (precisely because of the time difference).

That said, I will of course abide by whatever decision Eric and the commanders make in this regard.

I agree with JAParker. I would like no changes. But i have no problem with an other decision.

I still feel we could have gotten more out of the scenario. My match could have been won with a little bit more luck on my side.

I don't mind losing the first round either, we will show our enemies that that was just a lucky round for them.

So I will participate in whatever you guys decide to throw at me. I am having a blast playing motivated players on nice scenarios. Yes, I will try my best to defeat and destroy and humiliate my opponent (in good spirits of course). No, I did not manage that against my esteemed opponent in this first round. But there will be more rounds.

I have decided to keep the teams as already formed. However, we are going to start over with 'Ambush at Gemas'. There will be no reserve units placed this round so the tournament can start with the same matchups. I am going to start a new thread for battle results. So, please begin again.

By the way, this battle slightly favors the Allies so it more than likely won't start out 7-0 Axis. Hang in there and have fun.

I played it against Buidheo, who is a much stronger player than me, and won as Allies. It was very close and he easily could have won on the turn before the finish, so I think the Allies have a fair shot in this one unlike Khalkhin Gol.

And the oppossing commanders and political officers are going to have great difficulty finding propoganda material that isn't incredibly racist and/or otherwise offensive, from either side, but we will give this a go

I don't mind playing unbalanced but good scenarios no matter the team I belong to. However, if balance will become a major concern when picking and editing the maps, I suggest we start considering playing a match+rematch tournament. Then, there would be no problems of such kind.
Just a thought.

You're absolutely right. Playing both sides would eliminate any controversies. However, what I'm trying to do in this tournament is to promote a team concept over a series of scenarios. It gives it a campaign feel especially with the reserve units now available. Also, the banter back and forth is fun. I just wanted to try something different. It seems to be going over fairly well. The only problem is my failures on making balanced scenarios. We had a poor start but hopefully the upcoming scenarios will be better balanced. My sons(19 and 17) and I play them with the board game version and tweak them when necessary. The problem may arise that we don't play them enough times to work out all the imbalances. I am going to start asking some of you online to help evaluate some of the upcoming scenarios. I was trying to avoid this as I wanted all of you to have the same experience in anticipating each round. However, I think it best to get some of your opinions before posting. The upcoming scenarios may not have a 50-50 balance but they will be interesting and fun to play(I hope).

I understand that perfectly, Eric, and I sincerely appreciate your effort in bringing the best of your skill and availability to our service The campaign flavor is definitively a big plus in these tournaments!
Just wanted to take some pressure off and put you at ease (from my personal position) as to a compromise solution that would release you from that burden - if it ever becomes exaggerated!

And if we have to face overwhelming odds, the opposition is tremendously powerful and the cause seems hopeless, that's when we will be at our best and show the enemy that willpower alone will bring us victory!

Good analysis. And I love the Spoiler tag -- never saw one of those before.

Now, for extra credit, if you attack the infantry and double-flag it, should you take ground or not, and why?

A. You should take ground.

Why--Double flagging a Japanese infantry means it will only retreat one hex. If you don't take ground, the infantry could move into that hex or the adjacent jungle hex, and still shoot at you with 3 dice (a detail in which jungle hexes differ from forest hexes). Also, with a little as a probe, the tank could join in with another 3 dice (and perhaps 3 after that, with an armor overrun).

If you take ground, with the same probe only 3 dice can be mustered against you (two from the infantry, one from the tank). Even with an attack, the maximum number of dice would be 5. It would take an Assault or DHQ to muster more.

Normally I would agree with your analysis mr. Parker but in this case I would not move into the jungle.

Why?
Because we both need only one medal to finish. If Vaillants can move the tank he can move ontot the objective and I am lost anyway. So I have to gamble on the fact the he will not be able to order the tank.

If he can't move the tank my risk is in the infantries running around. If I move into the jungle three infantries can potentially shoot at me, some of them with three dice, being full Japanese infantries. That would mean two times three dice plus two from the single man that moved into the jungle next door eight dice. And if he flags me twice with he first throw three more so minimum of six dice (if he can order those three infantries.
If I do not move into the jungle at that moment he can only get at me with the single man and give me three dice.

Luckily for me Vaillants would have had only left hand cards to play so I could then try to get the lone man or the lone tank the next turn. But I was lucky enough to get it right then and there.

I think all players in this tournament are the ones trying to figure out this kind of stuff, and that's why it's fun to hang around after the game and ask: why did you do that on so and so turn?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me on those occasions. (Even though sometimes the answer was simply, misclicked )